Creating Custom Ubuntu Live-CD With Remastersys
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Install Remastersys in Ubuntu
The Remastersys repository needs to be added to your /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
Paste the following into the sources.list:
# Remastersys
deb http://www.remastersys.klikit-linux.com/repository remastersys/
Save and exit the file.
Update the source list using the following command
sudo apt-get update
Install remastersys using the following command
sudo apt-get install remastersys
This will complete the installation
Using Remastersys
In order to learn how you can use remastersys, run
sudo remastersys
remastersys Syntax
sudo remastersys backup|clean|dist [cdfs|iso] [filename.iso]
remastersys Examples
1) to make a livecd/dvd backup of your system
sudo remastersys backup
2) to make a livecd/dvd backup and call the iso custom.iso
sudo remastersys backup custom.iso
3) to clean up temporary files of remastersys
sudo remastersys clean
4) to make a distributable livecd/dvd of your system
sudo remastersys dist
5) to make a distributable livecd/dvd filesystem only
sudo remastersys dist cdfs
6) to make a distributable iso named custom.iso but only if the cdfs is already present
sudo remastersys dist iso custom.iso
cdfs and iso options should only be used if you wish to modify something on the cd before the iso is created. An example of this would be to modify the isolinux portion of the livecd/dvd
Creating An ISO Image
To create an iso image of your installation, simply run
sudo remastersys dist
This will create an iso image called customdist.iso in the /home/remastersys directory. The dist option makes that your personal folder (e.g. /home/ruchi) will not be included in the iso image. You might have to insert your Ubuntu installation CD during the process.
This is how the end of the process looks:
[...]
92.16% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:25 2007
93.39% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:25 2007
94.62% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:24 2007
95.85% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:24 2007
97.08% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:25 2007
98.31% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:25 2007
99.54% done, estimate finish Wed DEC 28 15:31:25 2007
Total translation table size: 2048
Total rockridge attributes bytes: 3950
Total directory bytes: 9094
Path table size(bytes): 54
Max brk space used 0
406890 extents written (794 MB)
/home/remastersys/customdist.iso is ready to be burned or tested in a virtual machine.
Check the size and if it is larger than 700MB you will need to burn it to a dvd
796M /home/remastersys/customdist.iso
Clean Up
After you've burnt the iso image onto a CD/DVD, you can run
sudo remastersys clean
to remove all temporary file created during the iso generation as well as the /home/remastersys directory.
Hell yea mate! thanks.
Thank you very much.
Very nice article.
I would like to download this program but repository doesn’t work any more I thought that I was doing something wrong, but when i paste the path for repository in firefox it say 404. So something must be wrong with this
repository or server.
I have found other repository:
deb http://www.linuxmint.com/repository romeo/
try this way:
gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
add:
# Remastersys
deb http://www.remastersys.klikit-linux.com/repository remastersys/
at the end.
sudo apt-get update
and after that on with installation…
Nice guide..Thanks a LOT for this…
Sorry for n00b Question but I want to save new ISO to a custom location instead of /home/remastersys
How can I do that ??
Hell yeah,
Just what I was looking for.
Can’t wait to give it a try 😉
Hi. Nice guide for remastersys.
I am using remastersys in creating ubuntu based customized work. I compiled my kernel and created a new vmlinuz. Now I booted into my new compiled kernel image and then created an live dvd using remastersys.
I burn it in DVD and boot it from DVD. it entered into live cd mode. But it stops with a screen,
==============================================
BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-5 Ubuntu7) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter ‘help’ for a list of built-in commands.
(initramfs)
==============================================
I dont know where I m doing mistake.
Help me to resolve my problem.
-Prakash
I’m am having the same problem …. I can use remastersys fine makes the iso i burn it …. when i go to boot it it get to the boot menu … then after i make any selection… it starts to do what i pick (eg. start safe gfx mode) then it drops me to an ash shell …. never evern seen this shell before until now ….. the md5 cheaks up so i’m not sure …… one thing i did notice this time when i booted in i have a new kernnel in my menu … guess it updated …. would that have some thing to do with it maybe ….
any help in this matter would be greatly aperasheated —
lol mind my spelling
Thanx in advance DarkNet
sry i guess i should have added it dose the same in VBox OSE
lol using hardy 8.04 sry about the choppy posts feel free to merge them ……. sry writting these on my breaks from work and attemping to slove the issue as well and if i do slove it i’ll put how i did it here.
so i got it to work thou it boots very slowly but it works! what i did is purged all extra linux images so i was left with one then reran remastersys then instead of droping me to ash it said error 15 file not found … so i copied linux-2.6.24* and initrd.img-2.6.24* to the remastersys casper dir …. and moded the grub menu.1st accordingly then ran remastersys again but only making the image. …. i can post the commands if anyone needs them lazy now
Namaste
lol tired to … can the mod change copied linux-2.6.24* to vmlinuz-2.6.24* Thanx
Just wanted to say thanks! I found this site while looking for something else, but it works perfectly! 🙂
Unfortunately ‘Remastersys’ is not working for Ubuntu 8.04-amd64!
criboo is a n00b remastersys worked fine for me on 8.04 AMD64
A very pleasant surprise! Second try on AMD64 system worked.
Incredibly valuable product.
First try experience may help others. I forgot I was experimenting with Compiz-Cube and used that system to Remaster. When booted I had all the effects of the Cube but nothing but white pages. By accident I noticed the Advanced Desktop Effects worked on the blank pages. I tried to us CL1 (CTL-ALT-F1) to fix the video driver but that requires a reboot. I could not figure how to remove the Advanced Desktop Effects from the command line so I rebooted the system shutdown the Advanced Desktop Effects and remastersys that configuration. It works fine but I cannot install the ATI drivers.
Thanks again!
I have this question. Let’s say, I want to make a custom live/install cd, but I don’t want it to be the copy of the system that I have running, is it possible to do that? I understand that remaster sys can only work with current system, and call me lazy, but I don’t want to change my whole distro for one particular live cd I want to make. I could look for it online tho, but u know, If I done it myself, feels somehow better.
I am trying to create a USB boot flashdrive on a 16 GB stick. My Ubuntu 8.1 install has a lot of additional software added to it. When I use the remastersys it gives me an error:
The compressed filesystem is larger than the iso9660 specification allows for a single file. You must try to reduce the amount of data you are backing up and try again.
Is there any way areound this? I am not burning the image to disk, I only want to use it to create a boot USB with Ubuntu’s built in USB boot creation feature.
Any help is GREATLY appreciated.
#19 – Rexmo:
It’s because iso9660 can’t do files (i think) over 4gb. You have to use the UDF spec.
Remastersys seems to be broken when I tried installing it gives error
The following pacakages has unmet dependencies:
remastersys:Depends: ubiquity but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken Package
would appreciate any help.
Is there a way to just have the system install? No user interaction. I would like to be able to setup a system. Image it. Give out a CD. It installs. Is this workflow possible with this tool?
I am making a backup of my entire system and going to burn a live DVD. It is running as I write. It must make a ISO image on the hard drive because it is using up most of my hard drive storage to create it. It is about 32% done and is 150616 is size and needs to go to 464176. I have a 60 gig HD and at the rate it is going I might run out of space. I am down to 14% left. My question is if I can’t finish this backup, can I connect a USB drive to my system and direct the ISO image file to it?
It finial finished with very little HD left. But I got the same error as rexmo:
The compressed filesystem is larger than the iso9660 specification allows for a single file. You must try to reduce the amount of data you are backing up and try again.
So I did a sudo remastersys dist and burned the ISO file to a DVD. The only problem is it hangs when I try to boot with it when it come to Configuring network interfaces. I tried it on two different laptop.
What are the dependencies for Remastersys? I’d like to use this to create live CDs of Ubuntu Server and I was wondering if X was required?
Thanks.
Hey Irv- Did you ever get your issue with the hang at configuring network interfaces? I’m having the same problem and have tried it on multiple systems. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!!
Any updates for 9.04?
Is this project still active?
remastersys worked great for adding to ubuntu, then maing a bootable backupDVD. I have had no success makinmg a smaller ubuntu 9.04. Here is what I did:
Made some room like this:
apt-get remove openoffice*
installed remastersys per instructions above
built and burned, like this:
remastersys backup mydisk.iso
The resulting disk won’t boot. BTW I am creating the iso on a parallels virtual machine.
My end goal is to have a bootable CD with
ubuntu – open office + g++ + subversion + some other files in ~/
Has anyone had success with something similar?
thanks, James
Hello. May you tell me if there are a similar tool to do the following work:
– As I don’t have a DVD burner I would like some application that allows me to automatically install Ubuntu and download and install all the applications I have installed in this moment. I’m not an english speaker, so if I didn’t result clear, please, let me know and I will do my best to explain it better.
Remastersys dont works with Ubuntu 9.10. With Ubuntu 9.04 it works perfect. No burned DVD starts after using remastersys backup (newest version) with ubuntu 9.10.